Official VGR Guitar Hero Thread

[Cuddly Knife]

I just got this game today, and played it for about 2 hours. My left hand hurts. My right wrist hurts.

I gotta hand it to you guitarists. I always thought that there was nothing harder than four-way co-ordination for the drumset, but I might've been wrong on that one. Maybe it's because I've never had to use my pinky finger for anything in life, but now that's all changed, and it's even worse that all the hard stuff to play is with my left hand!

So this thread was created for the purpose of posting high scores, favorite venues/characters/songs/patterns, song wish-lists, frustrations, and general tips for guitar noobs like me.

Right now, I'm playing on Medium, and having a kind of hard time learning how to do chord patterns. Instead of just sliding my fingers, I'm trying to alternate fingerings, which doesn't work with my slow-assed pinky. I'm also not good at strumming the strings(is that right, strumming?), or the down and up movements required for faster rif***e. I actually tried to use a pick, but that just can't work because it'll register multiple strums when it bounces back up to the start strum area, if that made sense. Yes, I know I used past and present tense in one sentence. Grrrr.

[Fivespot]

CK - I posted this 4/26 in a different thread. Some thoughts of mine re: Guitar Hero from a different slant:

Hey, any of you guys check out Guitar Hero? I know TMG also plays guitar as do a few others around here if I remember correctly (& obviously Monkey does).

What do you think of the game as a guitar player???

Personally, I find it to be a lot of fun and an overall great game (9ish score).

It took some getting used to mainly on the Easy/Normal setting since it dumbs down the actual song playing for most tracks. As a guitar player, I had a hard time playing anything less than how I would translate the notes to a 5 button guitar w/no strings. As soon as I cranked up the difficulty, it became more natural feeling and fun.

Still though, it's not a real guitar so playing the PS2 guitar controller is not the same as playing the real thing keeping it a game for me (and not like someone from Mexico taking a Spanish class if you will).

Another aspect of GH that I find interesting is the way the game takes easy songs and makes them harder - which is also hard for me to adjust to. Take Thunder Kiss '65 for example, on Easy/Normal difficulty it felt almost like I was playing the real thing. Minus an open E string, it's pretty much the same finger movements. But after cranking up the difficulty, Thunder Kiss '65 became more complex than it is in real life. I really don't like that aspect of the game, but I need to remind myself that this is not an actual simulation and non-guitar players would never really notice any way.

Another thing, Gibson's are great and all but please buy the rights to some other guitars for GH2 or maybe provide fake imitations or something. I'd like to see a few other standards become available: Strat, Telecaster, Kramer/Van Halen style, and last but not least a hollow-body electric like BB King's Lucille.

And by the way, how easy do you think it would be in real life to swing around a Les Paul freakishly on stage while playing a wicked lead? It wouldn't be - those guitars are big, heavy, and kind of clumsy to swing around although they are one of my personal favorite guitars. I live a few miles from where Les Paul invented the electric guitar so it also has some sentimental value to boot. Mainly I love the giant tone of those huge Les Paul's and the sustain.... you can almost still hear the note playing....shh, listen... but this one goes to 11.

Couple Spinal Tap references at the end there

[Cuddly Knife]

How's about a little help, geetarists? Heh, heh.

I can't do Cowboys from Hell on Expert. The beginning slaps me worse than Ike done Tina. I have no pinky control, or very little.

Really, I can't do all of the last set of songs. Although I've only tried 3, I know I won't be able to do the other 2 if I can't do the ones before.

Also, is it better to have your bird finger on the yellow button? Pinky on the furthest to the right? That's how I do it.

I like that song Evenrats by the slip. My fingers can tear up that song!

[Fivespot]

Cowboys for a real guitar is even harder than the Guitar Hero version. I'm glad they kept it at the top of the difficulty level. I remember learning that song in high school and really having a hard time with the picking in particular.

Re: pinky usage - I think it's all a matter of preference. Do whatever feels most comfortable and use that consistently. Eventually it should become second nature as long as you use the same technique consistently.

For guitar hero, I kept my four fingers on the left-most four frets and would either shift my fingers from 1-4 to 2-5 or would stretch my pinky from 4-5 simply by reaching a little further. Really depends on the song and where the majority of the notes are played.

[Cuddly Knife]

The new OPM demo has Guitar hero 2 on it, playables include Shout At the Devil, You Really Got Me, Strutter(?), and YYZ.

[Oobgarm]

It's also worth nothing that hammer-ons and pull-offs are much, much easier to do in GH2.

And Rush = http://www.dustincarter.com/images/rocker.gif

[Gadfly2317]

It's also worth nothing that hammer-ons and pull-offs are much, much easier to do in GH2.

And Rush = http://www.dustincarter.com/images/rocker.gif

Believe it or not, I'm pretty stoked The Police's Message in a Bottle is on there. I've got GH2 pre-ordered and am ready to rock out. The track list, to me, is WAY WAY WAY better than the first one. I'm especially stoked about

Van Halen: You Really Got Me
Butthole Surfers: Who Was In My Room Last Night
Black Sabbath: War Pigs
Motley Crue: Shout at the Devil
Guns N Roses: Sweet Child o Mine
PRIMUS!!!!!: John the Fisherman
Janes Addiction: Stop (this is so cool I can hardly effin believe it!!!)

In fact, the whole damned track list pretty much rules. . . except I can't understand for the life of me why the put Warrant's "Cherry Pie" on there. Did the feel sorry for the Cherry Pie guy (did you see his fat washed up ass on VH1's "History of Metal" series?

My biggest regret for GH2 is still no Faith No More.

[Gadfly2317]

I know the game is out shortly, but there's a playable demo disk in Psx magazine that has 5 songs including Shout at the Devil and You Really Got Me.

Also, if you are interested, the same issue also comes with a UMD demo of the PsP Killzone.

[Oobgarm]

I stopped in a Game Crazy store yesterday and got to try an official demo, but not the one in the OPM magazine. There were 8-10 songs playable. It was part of a 'retail demo kit' that was basically the retail package, only a demo was inside instead of the full game.

The SG controller was new as well, the butons felt a bit higher off the fretboard, and they weren't smooth and shiny like the first one. They also gave a nice tactile 'click' when pressed. I think it is much improved over the original.